Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric connector in which an actuator turnably attached to an insulating housing is provided with medium pressing portions, which press and contact a surface of a plate-shaped signal transmission medium.
Description of Related Art
Generally, in various electric devices, etc. various electric connectors are widely used as means for electrically connecting various plate-shaped signal transmission media such as flexible printed circuits (FPC) and flexible flat cables (FFC). For example, in an electric connector used by being mounted on a printed wiring board like Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-134763, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-289283, etc., the above described plate-shaped signal transmission medium composed of for example, FPC or FFC is inserted therein through an opening of an insulating housing (insulator), and an actuator (connection operating means), which maintains the plate-shaped signal transmission medium in an open state when it is at “standby position (open position)” at that point of time, is configured to be turned so as to be pushed down by operating force of an operator toward “acting position (closed position)” in a front side or a rear side of the electric connector.
Then, when the actuator (connection operating means) is operated to be turned to the “acting position (closed position)” at which the plate-shaped signal transmission medium is sandwiched, medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) provided on the actuator are brought into pressure-contact with the surface of the plate-shaped signal transmission medium (for example, FPC or FFC), and the plate-shaped signal transmission medium is sandwiched by the pressing force of the medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) of the actuator and caused to be in a fixed state. On the other hand, when the actuator at the “acting position (closed position)” is operated to be turned to the direction in which the actuator is raised to the upper side toward the original “standby position (open position)”, the pressing force of the medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) of the actuator is cancelled, and, when the actuator reaches the “standby position (open position)”, the plate-shaped signal transmission medium can be removed.
The actuator is turned to the “acting position (closed position)” in the above described manner, and the medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) are brought into pressure-contact with the plate-shaped signal transmission medium (for example, FPC or FFC). As a result, electrically-conductive paths provided on the plate-shaped signal transmission medium are brought into contact with a plurality of contact members, which are arranged in multipolar shapes in the insulating housing, thereby forming signal circuits or ground circuits.
In this case, often employed is a configuration in which, at the timing immediately before the medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) of the actuator reach the “acting position (closed position)”, pre-pressing protruding portions, which are formed so that protruding amounts thereof with respect to the plate-shaped signal transmission medium (for example, FPC or FFC) are somewhat larger than those of the medium pressing portions, are momently brought into pressure-contact with the surface of the plate-shaped signal transmission medium, and a clicking sensation in the turning operation of the actuator is created when a pressing action by the medium pressing portions is carried out thereafter.
However, recent electronic devices have a tendency that the number of electrodes of signal transmission is large, and the numbers of the contact members and the medium pressing portions (pressurizing portions) of the actuator are increasing in proportion to the increase of the number of electrodes. In the electric connector having such a multipolar structure, large operating force has to be applied to the actuator along with the increase of the number of electrodes. If the number of electrodes of signal transmission is equal to or more than a certain number, it is conceivable that the applying force required for the operation of the actuator becomes excessive and that the operation of the actuator becomes difficult.
In order to solve such a problem of the operability of the actuator, a measure of reducing the protruding amounts (pressing margins) of the medium pressing portions and the pre-pressing protruding portions with respect to the plate-shaped signal transmission medium (for example, FPC or FFC) has been conventionally carried out. However, such a configuration has a problem that the retainability and electric connection reliability with respect to the plate-shaped signal transmission medium are reduced, and, furthermore, the clicking sensation of the turning operation is also reduced.
The inventor of this application discloses conventional literature of the present invention as following.
[Patent Literature 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-134763
[Patent Literature 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-289283
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electric connector capable of increasing the retainability and electric connection reliability with respect to the plate-shaped signal transmission medium by a simple configuration while improving the operability of the actuator.